Event Details

Through a Buddhist Lens: Faith and Freedom in America

Join the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan for this meaningful evening with Duncan Ryuken Williams, Soto Zen Buddhist priest and professor of religion, and award-winning essayist and novelist Pico Iyer to celebrate Williams' new book, American Sutra: A Story of Faith and Freedom During the Second World War, which takes a critical look at the Japanese-American Buddhist experience in U.S. internment camps during World War II.

This discussion will explore questions of faith, devotion, identity, and resilience in the face of dislocation, loss, and uncertainty and look closely at what it means to be an American. We will also focus on the importance of upholding bedrock American values—religious freedom, tolerance, social and racial justice, and civil liberties—in our historical moment.

This evening is cohosted by Tricycle magazine, where Duncan Williams and Pico Iyer are contributing writers. A reception as well as book sales and signing will conclude the evening.